Anti-Communist Writer ‘Hong Kong’s Voltaire’ Lee Yee Dies At 86

Lee Yee, a famous Hong Kong writer, died of illness in Taipei on Oct. 5 at the age of 86. His daughter posted an obituary on her Facebook page. “The funeral arrangements will be announced soon,” she said.

Hong Kong columnist Chip Tsao and scholar Simon Shen pointed out that Lee had recently been diagnosed with COVID-19 and had undergone heart surgery. Tsao described him as “Hong Kong’s Voltaire.” who was born in China, loved China, but later fell in love with Taiwan and Hong Kong, fought against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and finally perished in worrying about the future of Hong Kong and China.

Shen said bluntly that Lee moved to Taiwan due to the political changes in Hong Kong and his death was indirectly caused by the CCP’s repressive regime and the “Hong Kong National Security Law (HKNS).

Leftist When Young, Anti-communist Later

Lee Yee, whose original name is Li Bingyao, was born in Guangzhou in 1936. He moved to Hong Kong in 1948 and completed his studies in Hong Kong. In 1970, Lee founded the leftist magazine “The Seventies Monthly.” He broke away from the Leftist Camp in 1981 and renamed the magazine “The Nineties Monthly,” criticizing the China-Taiwan Cross-Strait relations. His stance became anti-communism.

Starting in 2007, he wrote editorials for the defunct newspaper Apple Daily and often publicly criticized the CCP. He bade farewell to his column in 2021, saying that the implementation of the HKNSL was “a real pressure that he has never encountered in more than 60 years of writing.”

Lee later moved to Taiwan and began to write posts under the title “A Loser’s Memoir” on Facebook, narrating his change of stance and his views on the future of Hong Kong. He also paid special attention to the situation of Hong Kong youngers who fled overseas.

His Last Article Recalled Hong Kong’s Social Movement

On Sept. 15, Lee published his last article “A Loser’s Memoir 0916,” describing the “Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement,” which started a large-scale social movement in Hong Kong in 2019, with more than 1 million people participating in some of the marches, as a memory that he “wanted to forget, but he cannot forget.”

On June 30, 2020, the “HKNSL” was forcibly passed by the CCP government and gazetted before Hong Kong people knew the content of the provisions. Lee wrote, “The ending is a tragedy, but who can predict that it might not become the vitality of the future?”

He described it as the enlightenment of Hongkongers. “Power can suppress the behavior of awakened people, but it cannot suppress this awakening.” For example,  he said, referring to the long queue of Hongkongers and the sea of ​​flowers after Queen Elizabeth II’s death, it showed  “where people’s hearts are, which is a silent protest against power.”

On Sept. 19, Lee revealed that he had suspended the update of “A Loser’s Memoir” due to illness, and added, “I am okay. Don’t need to worry about me.”

From CCP Loyalist to Promoter of Democracy and Freedom

Lee was a representative of the liberal intellectuals in overseas Chinese society.

In 1948, Lee followed his family to migrate to Hong Kong. He graduated from a left-wing school and believed in socialism. Then, he worked at the publishing and editing department of Shanghai Shuju (Publishing House).

In 1956, Lee began to contribute to newspapers and periodicals. In 1970, he founded the leftist magazine “The Seventies Monthly” and served as the editor-in-chief. The magazine’s stance supported the Cultural Revolution of China and the Baodiao movement. Lee united the Taiwanese and Hong Kong exchange students in America, while his magazine was regarded as a “bandit magazine” by the Taiwan government at that time.

However, at the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, Lee became disillusioned with his youthful belief in socialism.

In 1979, “The Seventies Monthly” was banned by the CCP for its coverage of the Wei Jingsheng case and Deng Xiaoping’s anti-democracy. “The Seventies Monthly” published three editorials in a row questioning the CCP’s ban on the magazine’s entry to China and the publication of articles on “privileged CCP classes.” In 1981, Lee announced his departure from the leftists. Wei Jingsheng was a democratic activist in China, jailed and later released on medical grounds following a high-level diplomatic by the U.S, in 1995. On his release, he flew to Detroit.

In 1989, the Tiananmen massacre occurred in China, the protest was forcibly suppressed with thousands dead when the government declared martial law and sent the People’s Liberation Army to occupy parts of central Beijing. The social movement of China was suppressed, the Chinese intellectuals fled overseas, and Lee became disillusioned with Deng Xiaoping. He decided to break away from the CCP and went to Taiwan with his publications to explore the path of Chinese democracy and freedom.

Lee once interviewed Xu Zhucheng, Editor-in-chief of Wen Wei Po. Xu had been persecuted and imprisoned by both Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) and the CCP respectively. Having been jailed in KMT and CCP prisons, Xu arrived at a thought-provoking conclusion: when the KMT was in power, his mind was free, and his family and friends regarded him as a hero even when he was imprisoned; However, imprisoned by the CCP, he lost his freedom of thoughts, and his relatives and friends cut ties with him and pretended that they did not know him.

80-year-old Lee Moves to Taiwan

In 1997, after the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong and the implementation of the one country, two systems, Lee moved back to Hong Kong, a place that he was more familiar with when he was growing up.

Lee believed that intellectuals should have independent thinking and freedom of expression. He did not agree with Hong Kong nationalism, and believed that the target of resistance should be the CCP regime rather than the Chinese people. He had written a column in “Apple Daily” for 25 years, and even though his point of view on some issues was different from that of “Apple Daily,” he still had the courage to say what he thought was right.

Another political and current affairs commentator, Ng Chi Sum, said that when he was writing for Apple Daily during Lee’s tenure as the editor-in-chief, even though the two of them had different views, his articles were still published without editing. Ng praised Lee as a very tolerant person.

In 2019, after the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill (AELAB) Movement broke out in Hong Kong, the CCP forced the launch of the National Security Law. Lee believed that the prospects of Hong Kong had come to an end so he moved to Taiwan for safety.

Having to move and adapt to a new environment in his 80s had taken a toll on his health. Shen bluntly said that “the regime and the HKNSL indirectly caused the death of Lee.”

Tsao, a Well-known Hong Kong Current Affairs Commentator:  ‘Hong Kong Voltaire’

Lee was born in China, loved China but was forced to emigrate to Taiwan and Hong Kong in the 1990s, and finally died of worrying about Hong Kong and China. Chip Tsao, a well-known current affairs commentator, regards Lee as “Hong Kong’s Voltaire”.

Tsao described that Lee was different from other social activists. He did not advocate the independence of Hong Kong and Taiwan because he had a sense of national identity with the Chinese. However, he advocated tolerance of dissent, safeguarded freedom of speech, and hoped that China will have a multi-party democratic system and that those in power must be supervised by the press.

Lee hoped that China would become better and that the Chinese people would live a better life, but in his later years, he realized that hope seems to be impossible. He could only spiritually support the next generation in Taiwan and Hong Kong to find their way.

“In his later years, he wrote his autobiography under the title “A Loser’s Memoir,” lamenting a life of struggle; but his life did not fail, it was the CCP culture that failed,” said Tsao.